Thoughts from the brain of marissa pick, social media & b2b marketer based in NYC!

Menu

Monthly Archives: August 2013

Two Years ago Hurricane Irene slammed the east coast with record winds and flooding touching down in NYC and NJ the very same day of my wedding, 8/28/11. I’ll never forget the week leading up to the wedding with guests, vendors, and friends calling to cancel travel plans and the impending storm threatening to cancel my wedding up to the very last moment.

Despite the 24/7 media coverage of Irene, and the heavy storm, lack of power in my venue, and every other challenge that seemed to arise that day- somehow we moved forward with our plans, and I married my best friend. I learned a very valuable life lesson that day on perspective. I was going to get married on 8/28 whether it was in our hotel room with no power, hair or makeup done, floral, or anything else. I was with my best friend, my rock, and that’s all that mattered. Eventually the storm passed, we even have our outdoor photos to prove it! We had the best time celebrating that night with friends and family, and it’s been an amazing two years.

The lesson behind my wedding tale as I sit here reflecting, is that sometimes as hectic and crazy as life gets, you need to look back and evaluate what’s truly important and prioritize. Focus on the things that matter and really evaluate and prioritize your life. Most people do prioritize, but only things like work, vacation, but very few people prioritize what really matters, which is a shame. It seems to be an ongoing life lesson, which i’m sure I will revisit for many years to come but on a very special day, I wanted to share my thoughts. I’ll let Albert Einstein take it away below…

I’m a huge believer in social media (shocking I know!) but as the industry continues to expand and the social media “bubble” continues to bloom people want proof to backup the statement that it indeed social media does work. How you measure the sucess and ROI of social media may vary, but needless to say often ROI can be seen in things such as website referral traffic, lead generation, sales, and so much more.

A website I visit daily, Social Media Examinerreleased its fifth annual 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Reportback in May of 2013which aimed to understand how marketers are using social media. Over 3,000 marketers provided feedback, and some of the major findings are beyond powerful. My top two findings from the report are below:

1) 86% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business, up from 83% in 2012.

2) Increased exposure is the top benefit of social media marketing: A significant 89% of marketers stated that increased exposure was the number one benefit of social media marketing.

Wishpond, a maker of online marketing tools, created an infographic which nicely illustrates the study’s results. As social media marketing continues to grow, this 43-page report makes the benefits of social media and future planning easily digestible. The Infographic below really speaks for itself with the top benefits achieved in social media in 2013.

I found this report very valuable and insightful, check out the infographic and report and let me know what you think in the comments section below…